Con Man

Ah, DragonCon. Four days of concentrated geekdom. I would venture that this was a good year, especially logistically. Rooming arrangements were well managed and two cars managed to carry seven people with luggage and costumes.

I'm resisting the urge to list all the regrets I bring back with me from the weekend. I find it strange that those are the first things to rise during my mental assessment. Then again, perhaps it's not so strange, considering how I handicapped myself from the start in my thoughts. When Friday morning rolled around with the official beginning of Con, I remember thinking to myself that no matter what I did or how precious I tried to make each moment and every panel, soon it would all be a memory. Everything in life falls away to memory, I said to myself, and you will be left alone on the shores of nostalgia looking back to times gone by.

Not very productive to start out Con so fatalistically, but there I was. Had I thought upon it, I could have mounted a counterargument, but my obsessive tendencies resisted my efforts at a brighter outlook. Their resistance wasn't enough, though. After all, it is Con. How can anyone stay depressed?

Thankfully, I come away from DragonCon with more than morbid reflections on the nature of life. It was a good Con, although I feel like I missed a lot of panels. Admittedly, I did nod off during Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow. One also has to set aside one day of Con (either in whole or in pieces each day) to tour the Dealer's Room and Exhibitor's Hall. I didn't buy anything other than food this Con, but I still enjoyed strolling past tables of wonderfully geeky merchandise with Kaysha. There was even an exhibitor who asked me back to his booth so he could take a picture of me in my Inquisitor outfit (with Kaysha beside me in her Leeloo costume). We were told the picture would be up on the website sometime after Con. With the two or three other people who recognized me from Mutant Chronicles, I think I did better than last year. Everything held together better, too (though I'm finally giving up on magnets).

There were a few other notable panels. The first one schedule-wise that I got really excited over was a presentation on Bose-Einstein Condensates and Fermi Superfluid Gases. Not a little of it went over my head, but I did manage to grasp some things about them I didn't know. The speaker was very personable, too, and cracked jokes while talking high science. I also went to some of the writing panels, but they really didn't tell me anything useful.

I enjoyed the Star Trek panel with Brent Spiner (Data), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), and Jonathan Frakes (Riker), even though very little of the actual show was discussed. The three of them were having a good time making jokes and cutting up. Some fans might have wanted more decorum, but I was glad to see people other than attendees enjoying being at DragonCon. They weren't put off by the fans, either. The audio was so bad on the stage that they couldn't hear the questions being asked, so they eventually had the audience members come up to their table and ask them directly. Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised, but its difficult to get the image of a terror-stricken Summer Glau from last year's Firefly panel out of my head whenever I see stars at conventions.

The 2nd Annual Masquerade Mock-Viewing was lots of fun, with more respectable entrants than last year. See you at the crossroads, Onikaze.

I also managed to try the flight simulator hosted by the Orbital Commerce Project. Even though it seemed like a modified Microsoft Flight Simulator, it was a fun setup with faux cockpit and a full-wall projection. More than the simulation itself, I was glad to see serious tech companies trying to tap into the intellectual curiosity of sci-fi and fantasy fans. I will risk sounding like a regret in saying that I hope to spend more time in the Science and Space tracks next year.

Oh, and were the corsette vendors new this year? Some of Kaysha's friends came by to buy one while Kaysha herself was trying one on for size. Then, later, Beth was wearing one she had bought. I almost feel left out. Maybe they'll have codpieces next year?

After all the rushing and long days and late nights, I look back on DragonCon and see it as a kind of dessert. If you could divide the year in two, then you would have New Years and DragonCon. When you have an event once a year, it's hard not to anticipate it with a fierce longing. And when it arrives, you might be neurotic enough to distract yourself worrying over whether you're making the most of those precious few days. Would going to more Cons help? Maybe a RoundCon here and there to slake that thirst for geek concentrate?

Ah, well. It was fun. I shouldn't try to make more of it than that. Plenty of other things out there to keep a nerd busy.


Twilight out.